September 2007 Archives

I didn't even know the Democrats had a debate last night, but it's worth covering because it looks like every single one of the candidates came out in support of sanctuary cities. It's good that the Democrats are finally taking a stand on this issue. In the flawed U.S. two-party system your now either pro-migrant (Democrats) or anti-migrant (Republicans except for John McCain), when Democrats initially seemed as if they wanted to skirt the issue.

You can watch what each of the Democrats had to say on sanctuary cities in this New England Cable News segment.

This excerpt is from an email sent by Roy Beck to supporters of his anti-migrant organization, Numbers USA.

The panic has spread to your town or city - all across America.

It is most important that all of us contribute to that panic and ensure that it continues. For it is that kind of panic that will eventually lead to millions of illegal foreign workers and dependents going back to their home countries. (emphasis mine)

I'm
fortunate enough to have had a blessed childhood with two loving
parents, and vivid memories of it all. Even with all of the happy
memories I can still remember how terrifying it was for me to be
separated from my mother. My first day of preschool was the first time
that I had to spend any significant time away from my mother, and was
weeks before I could stop crying when she left me. Even as I grow
older, it's difficult to be away from the boundles love and support of
my mother.

I say all this not to pull on heartstrings, but just
to emphasize that I can't even imagine what it would be like to be
forcefully separated from my own mother, much less by an Immigration
and Custom's Enforcement agent, at a young age.

Migrants
are literally dropping dead from the terror in U.S. Maxsuel Medeiros,
of Brazilian descent, was only 25 years-old when he died from a heart attack in Massachusetts State Police custody.

According to the Boston Globe,
Medeiros was the passenger in a car that was stopped for a lane change
on Interstate 495 in Andover, Massachusetts. After the Mass. State
Police determined he had two outstanding state warrants -- something
that probably wouldn't have happened if Medeiros knew his constitutional rights
-- they detained him and placed him in a cell. He became ill later that
night and eventually died from what appeared to be a heart attack in
Mass. General Hospital yesterday.

Cracking
down on migrants staying in the U.S. illegally is creating more
lawlessness, not less. Nothing illustrates this more than the case of
Eric Mathison.

Mathison "is accused of repeatedly impersonating
a police officer to kidnap and rob Latino residents in Chelsea, preying
upon their constant fears of an immigration crackdown" according to the
Boston Herald.

The
U.S. has been on a path of destruction ever since the failure of
comprehensive immigration reform. In an effort to get
legislators to act, the Bush administration has taken on a policy of
masochism. Tearing up businesses, terrorizing migrant
communities, and straining Emigration States with masses of deportees
and declining remittances, will send this entire hemiphere down the
tubes.

Massachusetts has not been immune to this
trend. Almost daily migrant communities are reporting raids,
abuses, and shifty business practices. The latest occurence
in an increasing trend of migrant oppression was an Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid that spanned several cities in the
Boston area and netted 36 individuals, according to the Boston Globe.

I
hate giving extremists attention, but someone has to start calling out
Tom Tancredo for the fascism he is spewing. I never thought I
would see the day that a U.S. Presidential candidate would offically advocate for the prosecution of legislators for introducing a bill.

New Hampshire Democrats Lily Mesa and Susi Nord recently proposed House Bill 404
is described as "an act prohibiting state and local law enforcement
agencies from enforcing federal immigration laws". To use the
favored term of anti-migrant advocates it would have made New Hampshire
a "sanctuary" state. For those of you that were wondering,
sanctuary is a negative term for people like Tancredo.
Concepts like mercy and justice make Tancredo's blood boil.